Intensive off-season training this fall has allowed members of the Boys Swimming team to be in much better shape for the start of the winter season. “I think having two seasons with more or less the same people on the team created a stronger bond within the team,” said co-captain Jeffrey Lim ’21. 

COVID-19 guidelines have made practices different and caused challenges for the swimmers. The team was restricted to a maximum of 20 people in the pool at once, with one person on each end of the ten lanes. The team has also had no meets, so swimmers have worked to push each other to swim faster, do better in every set, and work on specific techniques. 

Placing well in competition may have been how the team measured success in the past, but without meets the team has been gauging improvement by focusing on sets. Co-captain Royce Shey ’21 said, “We have been trying to prioritize that swimming is a way to improve yourself as a person by increasing your willpower versus before when it was [about] achieving awards.”

On November 14, the team organized a mock meet. The swimmers competed in all the events they normally would, but without competitors from other teams or scoring. Although officials were not present to verify the times, the swimmers were able to compare their progress with records from previous years. James Yae ’23 and Chris Tolis ’21 kicked off the meet with a race in the 200 freestyle, and Shey and William Wildish ’21 battled each other for the 50 freestyle title. Carter Levine ’22 also competed in his first meet as a diver, as well as competing in a close race with Wildish and Yae in the 100 breaststroke. Lim said, “I was very impressed with how well everyone focused and tried their best despite these circumstances; this went fantastically well.”

Captains hope that swimmers will be able to get into the pool frequently while away from school so that when they return in February, they won’t lose all the progress they have made this fall.